By Marie Hoyer
One of the most exciting and successful events of the 1930s for rural people was the signing of the Rural Electrification Administration Act (REA), number 7307. It was signed by executive order by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on May 1, 1935.
Electricity was available to nearly 90% of city people by 1930 yet only 10% of rural areas were able to receive it. Many power companies did not want to develop electrical systems in rural areas because of sparse population and low financial returns.
The goal of the act was seen as an opportunity to provide jobs during the Depression to many rural areas and people.
It provided low interest government loans to rural developed co-operatives. Because of the nature of the program specialized skills of engineering and management people were also required. Co-ops were composed mainly of farmers to build and maintain electrical distribution systems in their areas using innovative construction techniques plus available capital from the REA program.
Men in the co-ops dug holes for the many power poles by hand using only shovels. They would receive twenty-five cents for every hole they dug. Poles were raised using ropes. Wire
was strung from farm to farm. The costs of the projects were included in people’s new electrical bills.
Within two years some five million farms in forty-five of the forty-eight states had electricity available to them. The change it made in homes and on the farms was incredible. No more chopping wood not only for heat but also to cook with. For the women who could afford them, clothes washing machines replaced the scrub board; electrical stoves, ovens, refrigerators and freezers were available. Water did not have to be hand pumped and carried from the well nor oil lamps cleaned and used. Every electrical item that would make life easer on the farm or in the home was available, if the person had the money to purchase it.
In the Central Montana area the residents of Roy, Danvers, Kolin, Corbly, Heath and Cottonwood had submitted applications to the federal government to have the area served with electricity. On Tuesday, March 14, 1939, various residents received the first electricity. A celebration was later held with different electrical prizes awarded.
Although electricity and what it could do was exciting, many people were still in awe of it in the beginning. There are still many people who remember or experienced the coming of electrical power and the changes it made in their lives.